I think the ISPF editor is the most powerful tool in the MVS arena and the possibilities of ways of editing data doesn't seem to stop. I hope you feel the same way and this week I will tell you about the ISPF labels that is predefined for you.

There are three predefined labels within the ISPF editor called .ZFIRST, .ZLAST and .ZCSR. Label .ZFIRST can be abbreviated to .ZF and .ZLAST to .ZL and lowercase entries are of course allowed. Label .ZF is always attached to the first dataline in your EDIT session and .ZL is attached to the last while .ZCSR is attached to the line where the cursor is positioned.

I use the labels .ZF and .ZL a lot mainly in conjunction with FIND, CHANGE and SORT. These commands accepts all three labels. You must be careful when you use .ZCSR because typically the cursor is in the command field when you execute the command you have entered. In these cases .ZCSR is attached to the dataline where the cursor was located before you moved it away from the data area. This might not be what you wanted. I always set a label of my own and then I use this label in conjunction with either .ZF or .ZL.